Interview Protocol

Teacher

Interviewer: Anonymous Interviewee: Natalia Jaramillo

Date: March 9, 2017 Time: 3:30 pm

Planning Questions:
How do you write a typical lesson plan?
When we start planning for the upcoming week(s), my 3rd grade team and I
always plan together. We take a look at the standards we need to cover or review
for the following week and base our lessons off of those. We all have a part in
researching the best materials and best practices for introducing or reviewing
specific skills. We combine them into one document that we all use for the next
week, but we fortunately get to put our automaticity on them.
What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons?
When we plan lessons we always have our computers and our folders that we
have compiled resources in over the years. We also have our math books
available so that we can plan our math lessons accordingly. We typically use
When we plan lessons we always have our computers and our folders that we
have compiled resources in over the years. We also have our math books
available so that we can plan our math lessons accordingly. We typically use
In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the classroom?
We individually accommodate the differences in the classroom by using a variety
of different resources. We have manipulatives ready to use for the kinesthetic
learners. We also use our data collection to help separate groups for guided
reading and guided math. We will use leveled readers in reading and will use
different forms of assessments and hands on activities for different types of
learners. We also have the computers and IXL for the visual learners.

Instructional Questions:
What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher?
Some challenges I face during instruction is trying to differentiate for all
students. In both core subjects, reading and math, we have such a wide spectrum
of working levels. We have students that are very low to students that are very
high above grade level. Trying to keep them all challenged and meet all of their
needs in an individual lesson and guided practice is sometimes tough to figure
out. With this, I always to go the veteran teachers on my teach to help me
brainstorm different ideas of how to best differentiate instruction.

What have been some of your instructional successes as a teacher?

There have been a lot of instructional successes in my short time as a teacher.

Some successes ive found in instruction is not teaching whole group unless you
have to. Recently, I have been splitting up my class during my math lesson. I put
half of them either on IXL or doing an activity quietly while my second group is
doing work out of their book with me at the board interactively. Then they swap.
This allows my lower group to get familiar practice in before they come to me
for instruction and allows my higher group to go and practice the skills they just
 learned on higher IXL levels.

What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching?

Patience and adaptability. Things arent always going to go the way you planned.
Sometimes the lessons youve spent hours prepping for will not go the way you
planned. There will be interruptions that will stop your lesson or cut it short and
you have to figure out how to fix it. As you saw with me this week, I decided to
scratch my previous lessons planned to do a whole day full of St. Patricks day
things to help make one of my students, from Ireland, feel special when he was
recently very homesick. You have to also be adaptable. Many times I have started
a lesson and quickly realized that I need to switch my approach to help students
understand. Sometimes you have to quickly figure out what you need to keep in
a lesson or throw out if youre on a time constraint. I think both of those are the
most important qualities to have as an educator.

How often do your students receive social studies/science instruction?

This year we have decided to take a rotational approach when it came to science
and social studies this year. I am the science teacher and Mrs. Griffin is social
studies. The students will rotate on a two week schedule. I have them for two
weeks at a time to teach and then they go to Mrs. Griffin for two weeks for social
studies. We also have a writing rotation and a project's rotation. I normally see
the students twice a month for science.

Are you satisfied with the amount of time that you currently allot for social
studies/science instruction? Explain.
What we thought would be a great way to keep students engaged in science and
social studies, and to allow them to dig deeper actually is a little harder to
accomplish. Because I am the only one to teach science, not all of the classes get
the same amount of instruction due to interruptions in the week. We always have
one half day a month, a character assembly, a field trip, day off, or any other
interruption that keeps us from having each class the full two weeks. So
sometimes it is extremely hard to fit in all curriculum for each class equally.

What social studies and science topics/units will be studied during the second week of
my clinical experience? What are possible goals/objectives I could address for my
lessons? Do you have any instructional resources that would support these
goals/objectives?
During your second week we will be learning about the solar system. We will be
specifically learning about the planets of our solar system. 3.E.1.1 Students know
that we live on a planet that is part of a solar system. Students know that a solar
system includes a star and planets, and other objects. The planets and other
objects revolve around the star. Students know that in our solar system Earth is
the third planet from the sun.

What does reading instruction look like in your classroom (e.g. readers workshop,
basals, etc.)?
In my classroom, we try to model more of a reader's workshop. I give a mini
 lesson at the beginning of every class and then we break out into guided reading
for the second half of my reading block. During your second week we will be
revisiting main idea and supporting details. You will be doing a lesson on that
standard since it is a harder standard and we will be focusing on it during our
guided reading. I have plenty of leveled readers books and main idea activities
that could help support the objective of identifying the main idea of a fiction or
nonfiction story and providing the supporting details.

Classroom Management Questions:

What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn?
When I catch a student doing the right thing, or staying focused on an activity I
reward them with a Dojo Dollar. At the end of the week they can cash in these
Dojo Dollars to earn coupons that they use throughout the week.

Tell me about the classroom community. What are the class rules? How is student
behavior monitored? In what ways is positive behavior reinforced? In what ways are
negative behaviors prevented? Tell me about the consequences for negative behavior.
Our classroom rules consist of respect each other, do the right thing when no one
is looking, respect our school, and give your best on everything you do. Our
student behavior is monitored by the teacher and the assistant, but also by the
students. Students are allowed to come up and brag or compliment someone
doing something right and telling the teacher. That students will be rewarded for
their positive behavior. I like to use the dollars for positive reinforcement and
behaviors. When students show negative behavior they either lose a dollar or lose
a few minutes from their recess.

Tell me about the pacing of lessons and interaction in the classroom- use of time- and
other aspects of timewait time, and time using teacher talk and student talk. What
works well with your students?
I usually take about 30 minutes for instruction/ mini lessons and 45 minutes for
my guided practice with each subject. Students are use to a lengthy wait time but
not to long of one. Just enough time for each student to be able to respond. They
get a lot of time to talk with each other on respective subjects. They do quite a bit
of partner work throughout lessons. They seem to thrive off of partner work and
talking through ideas with each other. Students in my class are very competitive
so using that to my advantage has worked well also.